Baseball: Murphy, Mundelein oust Libertyville
The third time was the charm.
Mundelein pitcher Brendan Murphy was on the mound twice against Libertyville during the regular season. And the lefty ace lost both games.
On Saturday morning, he was determined not to make it three in a row.
"I was fired up once I found out we were playing (Libertyville)," Murphy said. "I woke up this morning and I was going crazy. I was so excited."
Murphy got the start in the Class 4A Libertyville regional championship game, against the host Wildcats. This time, and when it meant the most, with a win-or-go-home situation on the line, Murphy came out on top.
He had a perfect game going for 5⅔ innings before allowing a hit and eventually leaving the game, but he certainly set the tone in leading second-seeded Mundelein to a 3-1 victory.
The Mustangs (27-9) move on to Thursday's Stevenson sectional semifinal (4:30 p.m.) and will face the winner of Monday's Palatine regional championship between Stevenson and Lake Forest. No. 7 Libertyville, which made the Mustangs squirm in the seventh inning by scoring a run and loading the bases with one out, closes out its season with a 22-12-1 record.
"For five innings, Brendan obviously dominated," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said of Murphy, who moves to 9-2 on the mound. "He got a little tired at the end, kind of ran out of gas because he got up over 100 pitches and I don't think he ever got nearly that high this season. But he battled his butt off."
Murphy, who will be pitching at Arizona State next year, rolled up 5 strikeouts and retired the Wildcats in order for five straight innings before finally allowing a hit with two outs in the sixth. Libertyville second baseman Brant Kym cracked Murphy with a blooping single into center field.
"(Murphy) has really good stuff. He's a really good pitcher, which we all knew already, and he just beat us today," Kym said. "I think he was more tuned in today (than in the two games during the regular season). We got to him early in those games, but he got ahead early today and we weren't able to fight back.
"It felt good (to finally break Murphy for a hit). Once we got one, we started to fill out the bases, but I wish we would have pushed across a few more."
Libertyville got 2 hits in the sixth inning as left fielder Brian Murphy followed Kym with a single. But the Wildcats weren't able to score in the inning.
They did finally crack the scoreboard in the top of the seventh (they batted first as the lower seed) when Trent Jean got hit by a pitch with one out and the bases loaded. That brought in the Wildcats' first run to wild cheers from the home crowd.
But Mundelein closer Will Michalski was able to strike out the next two Libertyville batters to ice the victory.
"That's been our kids all year. We've fought like that all year," Libertyville coach Sean Ferrell said. "I give (Murphy) a lot of credit. He pitched a really good game. He really did. He was on his game today.
"But I know our kids still believed we could win the game. I know it's hard to beat someone a third time, but right up until the end, the last out of the game, the last pitch of the game, we believed we could win."
Mundelein was opportunistic in scoring its runs.
The Mustangs got on the board in the second inning when Libertyville starter Riley Gowens walked in a run with the bases loaded.
Mundelein scored again in the third inning on a pass ball.
The Mustangs scored their final run in the fifth inning in more traditional fashion, when Ryan Fairweather drove in a run with a single to center field.
"We had a feeling it was going to be a tight game," Parola said. "We've struggled offensively all year to muster up some runs. Our pitching has been good, so we've been in a lot of close games all year. And the biggest one of the year so far, we came out on top."